Cups N Cakes has long been fans of Vain Mina records; from label proprietor Eliza Niemi to pop-maestro Avalon Tassonyi, they’ve been consistently putting out great albums from ‘off the beaten track’ Canadian artists for years. Somehow, despite four previous LPs, we haven’t covered Toronto’s Westelaken until today, but with today’s release of their fifth full length In It for the Lack, the band becomes yet another jewel in Vain Mina’s crown.
Curiously, the band describes themselves on most of their socials by saying “we play country music”. It’s not exactly accurate, per se, and I suspect is more of a tongue-in-cheek description, but there’s something about the emotional immediacy of country music that is nonetheless present across the record. The band says that’s no accident— lead songwriter Jordan Seccareccia has typically dabbled in parables on past records, stories populated by fictional characters, but on In It for the Lack, things take an undeniably autobiographical turn. Lead single “Sometimes” is a great example— Seccareccia paints a vivid picture of a relationship with just a series of disjointed thoughts, little flashes of images that, despite the empty spaces he leaves in the story, add up to a truly compelling and clear recollection of time spent with another person. It’s one of the best songs we’ve heard all year at Cups N Cakes, and the fact that the rest of the album keeps up to the very high bar set is nothing short of a miracle.
The band is celebrating the release of the album with a run of shows at the end of November, starting in Montreal on November 26th, before a handful of shows in Ontario. You can stream their album In It for the Lack today wherever you listen to music, or grab a CD or vinyl copy (while they last) from their Bandcamp page below.
